A four-game slate on Saturday in the second week of pre-season injury has thrown up plenty of questions, and some answers, for the eight coaches involved.
While some teams will be concerned about their standing ahead of the campaign, others will be thrilled with young talent on display as the Manly Sea Eagles, Wests Tigers, Canterbury Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs all claimed victories over the New Zealand Warriors, Sydney Roosters, Newcastle Knights and St George Illawarra Dragons respectively.
Here are all the big talking points out of the four games.
Errors, errors and more errors. Rust, or worse for the Knights?
The Newcastle Knights were very, very poor against the Canterbury Bulldogs on Saturday in a potentially worrying sign for things to come throughout the course of the year.
The bottom line is they ran out their likely Round 1 side and failed to register a point against a team who lost one of their best in Matt Burton to injury before halftime.
Dylan Brown and Sandon Smith have a mountain of work to do, and it will start with cutting out errors.
Rust is always a part of pre-season, but it looked more than that. Combinations just weren't there, things looked clunky, players were out of position and frankly, they didn't fire so much as a shot at Canterbury.
Smith is clearly the best organising half at the club, but that won't mean much if they can't score points once the season kicks off in anger.
The Cowboys in Round 1 will be a good test. The Vegas games are always a lottery, but Newcastle need to show something.
Kyle Flanagan will have a charmed life, while his old man is coaching the team. It’s only natural. Shane won’t give him the bullet unless he is diabolically bad.
Reed may potentially be the best 7 and Atkinson may potentially the best 6, but I can’t see the fans finding out unless Shane is prepared to write off the pre-season and try that combination, with Kyle at 14.